UT Permian Basin men's basketball, ranked for the second straight week, turned a two-point 50-48 Midwestern State lead into a 92-85 win to win its ninth straight Lone Star Conference game Thursday night at the UTPB Gym.

Sitting at 10-3 in conference play with a two-game lead in second place, the Falcons got back to balanced scoring on offense, with three players scoring at least 19 points on the night as UTPB scored at least 92 points for the 10th time on the season.

Johnnie Lacy led the Falcons with 21 points on the night and came through bigly in the second half, leading the team with 13 points in the final 20 minutes of action.

The Falcons finally found some separation midway through the second half, scoring 11 straight points as Lacy hit a pair from beyond the arc to go ahead 82-70, and the team never led by fewer than six over the final nine minutes of the contest.

James McPherson added 20 points on the night, hitting 5-9 from three-point land. It's the eighth time this year he's ended a game with at least five threes and he continues to lead the Lone Star Conference in 3-point percentage.

Josh Morris was tremendous down low for the Falcons, hitting 8-9 from the field for 19 points, his second best on the year to go with nine rebounds. He's shooting 73.5 percent on the season from the field and sits just below having enough field goals made on the year to lead the LSC. 

Daeshon Francis was big for the Falcons after getting into early foul trouble. After picking up his second foul at 17:13 of the first half, he picked up just one personal foul over the remainder of the game and ended the night with 15 points and a team-high six assists.

Both teams shot over 50 percent in both halves, but the Falcons out-scored Midwestern State 21-13 in points off turnovers and held a 36-26 rebounding advantage with 12 offensive boards to five for the Mustangs. Free throw defense also proved crucial down the stretch as Midwestern was held below 70 percent at the line in the second half.

UTPB looks for its 10th straight win Saturday afternoon, hosting Cameron at 4 p.m.